Month: January 2020

It’s a bit of a mixed bag as we come to the end of January. Some good, and some not so good.

Starting with the not so good, I’ll probably hit 20,000 words for the month, which is about half of target. I know that doesn’t sound much for those who regularly write five to ten thousand words a day, but I have written something new nearly every day this month. I also haven’t got very far with the Babylon mystery. I did revisit it on Sunday evening but I think it’s going to need printing out to really get my head back into the story. Ideally that means hooking up the laser printer which has sat in the closet for about a year, so any guesses on what nest of vipers that will expose? <bg>

On the positive side, I’m still on track with a story a week for the year, and up to thirty-nine consecutive stories in the overall challenge. Story number forty is under way as I type this. I’ve also logged five first submissions in January, which is my record for a single month, and the total submission in flight with various magazines is at or near an all time high. And I’ve written a blog post here every week of January – not on a consistent once every seven days basis, but I’ll aim to do better in February.

Well, Apple’s iBooks was more of a challenge than I expected, but I finally got through the agreements, and reviews, so Angels Without Faces will be available there later today.

The last week wasn’t as productive as I planned from a writing perspective. I did complete the weekly short story and started to read through the Babylon mystery to remind myself of what I’ve written, although nothing new got added. That’s for this week, along with the next short story!

2019 was definitely a year of change, although like many times of change, you don’t always see that when you’re in the middle of it. The biggest change as our move to Alabama from Florida, which raised some eyebrows and comments along the lines of “wrong way!” However, as parents age and need closer care and attention, it was clearly the right way!

I’d like to say the move didn’t impact my writing, but just looking back at my daily log tells the truth – barely 11,000 words in total for February and March, and then the Mystery Workshop in Las Vegas where I wrote 13,000 words in five days. So where did the year end up?

• Two stories accepted for publication – both Babylon mysteries
• Forty short stories completed
• A total of 213,000 words written, almost double the number of 2018

What I didn’t get done was finishing the Babylon novel, or putting any of those stories up for sale. That probably gives you a glimpse of my plans for 2020, but more on that next week.